Fields & Energy

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In the usual course of events, this introductory post would have been first, and I’d have started sharing sections of the book later. I wanted to check out the formatting and see how it would look, however, one thing led to another, people started finding and following my test posts, and so here we are, now.

This Substack will serialize my forthcoming book, Fields & Energy: How Electromagnetism and Quantum Mechanics Work, and Where Physics Went Wrong. My goal is to publish a section a week. Some are relatively short introductory or summary statements. Others will be longer. My rough estimate is that this will be about a two-year process, although I’ll launch a crowdfund to give you an opportunity to purchase the book long before the serialization is complete. After the Authors’ Introduction, all the book material will be prefaced by the section number. I’ll also post occasional related subject matter posts that are not previews from the book.

Here’s the draft back-cover blurb for the book.

Is electromagnetism due to one thing: a photon which is somehow simultaneously a localized point particle and a non-localized wave? Or is it two different yet complementary things: non-local fields guiding localized energy?

Scientist, inventor, and author, Hans G. Schantz draws upon a wealth of historical analysis, emerging discoveries, and his own original research to argue that electromagnetism requires a dualistic interpretation: that fields and energy are two different phenomena that follow different paths. This perspective resolves a host of outstanding puzzles and paradoxes including radiation reaction, wave-particle duality, and “vacuum” energy. The Correspondence Principle demands quantum mechanics must agree with classical electromagnetic results. These emerging results lead quantum mechanics toward the long-neglected pilot-wave interpretation and toward the physical reality of what Einstein called gespensterfeld or “ghost fields.”

Fields & Energy is an ambitious project, encompassing not only electromagnetic physics, but also the broader historical and philosophical context. The draft Table of Contents, below, offers a sneak preview of the content I will cover, and links to the material already posted.

Table of Contents

Author’s Introduction

Chapter 1 On Generation & Corruption

• 1.1 Calculation Versus Understanding: Why Care?

• 1.2 A New Understanding

• 1.3 Wait… That’s All There Is To It?

• 1.4 What’s the Benefit of This New Model?

• 1.5 A Paradigm Shift to a New Model

• 1.6 The Plan & Purpose of this Book

Chapter 2 Aristotle, Plato, & Newton

• 2.1 Ancient Ideas of Atomism & Plenism

• 2.2 Early Physics

• 2.3 Francis Bacon & The Birth of Scientism

• 2.4 The Copernican Revolution & the “Horror Vacui”

• 2.5 Rene Descartes

• 2.6 Isaac Newton

  • 2.6.1 Newton’s Methods

  • 2.6.2 Newton’s Legacy

  • 2.6.3 The Misinterpretation of Newton

• 2.7 Summary & Conclusions

Chapter 3 The Birth of Electromagnetism

• 3.1 The Discovery of Electromagnetism

• 3.2 Michael Faraday

• 3.3 Potentials & Analysis

• 3.4 James Clerk Maxwell & His Equations

  • 3.4.1 Ohm’s Law

  • 3.4.2 Maxwell’s Original Equations

  • 3.4.3 Gauss’s Laws

  • 3.4.4 Ampère’s Law

  • 3.4.5 Faraday’s Law & Electromagnetic Waves

  • 3.4.6 Permittivity & Permeability

  • 3.4.7 What is “Free Space?”

  • 3.4.8 Maxwell's Methods and Views

• 3.5 Summary & Conclusions

Chapter 4 Electromagnetism Comes of Age

• 4.1 Heaviside, Poynting, & Energy Flow

• 4.2 Early Models of Electromagnetism

  • 4.2.1 Ancient Views

  • 4.2.2 Fluid Theories of Electricity

• 4.3 Actions at a Distance: Fluids or Fields?

  • 4.3.1 Skin Depth and Litz Wire

  • 4.3.2 Inductive Telegraphy at a Distance

  • 4.3.3 Cross Coupling

• 4.4 Signals Along a Transmission Line

  • 4.4.1 How Do Transmission Lines Work?

  • 4.4.2 The Catt Question

• 4.5 An Introduction to Electromagnetic Models

  • 4.5.1 Potentials and Actions at a Distance

  • 4.5.2 Jefimenko & Lorentz

  • 4.5.3 A Synthesis

• 4.6 Hertz & Radiation Fields

  • 4.6.1 How Does Radiation Work?

  • 4.6.2 The Accelerating Charge Model

• 4.7 Summary & Conclusions

Chapter 5 Relativity & Quantum Theory

• 5.1 Positivism & Physics

• 5.2 Special Relativity

• 5.3 Weimar Physics & Philosophy

• 5.4 Quantum Mechanics

• 5.5 The Two Slit Experiment

• 5.6 Bohm-de Broglie Pilot-wave interpretation

• 5.7 Summary & Conclusions

Chapter 6: How Waves Interact

Chapter 7: How Light Works

Chapter 8: How Radiation Works

Chapter 9: How Quantum Mechanics Works

Chapter 10: Where Physics Went Wrong & How We Can Do Better

As a theoretical physicist turned antenna engineer, I would not have been able to write this book on electromagnetism if I didn’t have extensive hands-on experience in subjects like ultrawideband antennas and near-field wireless systems.

I’m aware of the irony of sharing a quote derisive of “book learning” in the introduction to my book project, but the book learning I have to share comes from a wealth of practical experience using things, dealing with things, and making things happen in the engineering world.

That knowledge exists in a broader historical and philosophical context, however - a context too often forgotten in our haste to focus all our time and energy on understanding the core physical concepts. I aim to make Fields & Energy accessible to a wide audience providing enough of the serious mathematical physics to serve as a launching point for professional scientists and engineers, but explaining the general concepts in a manner accessible to non-specialists.

If you want to jump into my broader body of technical work, check out The Art and Science of Ultrawideband Antennas, 2nd ed. or my ResearchGate page. You’ll find some of the preliminary technical foundation for Fields & Energy in this paper on “Energy Velocity and Reactive Fields,” in my paper “On Energy Flow in Standing Waves,” and in my paper “Energy Flow for Reflecting & Interacting Beams.”

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You may follow me online in other places as well:

• Telegram: 𝔸𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕫𝕒𝕣'𝕤 𝔸𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕞

• Gab: @aetherczar

• Twitter: @aetherczar

• Amazon: Hans G. Schantz

• Wise of Heart Substack

• ResearchGate

I also write fiction, including my alternate-history conspiracy techno-thriller series, The Hidden Truth, and my courtroom drama of biological science versus transgenderism, The Wise of Heart, which has a Substack of its very own.

Ready to dive in to Fields & Energy? Begin with the Authors’ Introduction, and continue on into Chapter 1: On Generation and Corruption. Look for new sections to post on Wednesdays, and bonus material to post… whenever I feel like it.

Welcome aboard!